Seen At 11: Long Island Rail Road Lost And Found Filled With Valuable, Bizarre Items

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NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Some of the items found in the Long Island Rail Road’s lost and found might not come as much of a surprise: wallets, bags, electronics.

Other items, however, might make you scratch your head. A fur coat? An artist’s portfolio? A prosthetic leg?

CBS 2’s Maurice Dubois was recently given a tour of the LIRR’s lost and found at Penn Station. More than 300,000 customers ride the commuter railroad service daily, and some leave behind valuable and important items.

Of the customers who submit inquiries looking for lost items — about 1,500 a month — 63 percent recover what they’re looking for, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the LIRR.

Among the items LIRR officials showed Dubois were prescription drugs, rings, coats, shoes, passports, social security cards and even expensive power tools.

The most bizarre, however, is a prosthetic leg.

“This is one of our pride and joys,” an MTA employee joked.

There are bins full of cellphones left behind — Blackberries, iPhones, Samsungs.

“I think we got the iPhone 5 before most people,” the MTA’s Henry Felton told Dubois.

MTA employees don’t just collect the items; they look for contact information in wallets, computers and other items, and then try to reach out to the owners. They will hold items anywhere from three months to a year, and sometimes longer.

Perry Schulman was one of the lucky people who recently recovered what he lost.

“I lost a leater portfolio, and I’m shocked that they found it,” he said at the lost-and-found window.